Memorable start: Pablo Sandoval’s belt breaks during at-bat

TORONTO – Pablo Sandoval’s first start of the season is already setting up to be a memorable one, though probably not in the way he had in mind.

Sandoval started at third base for the Red Sox on Saturday against Toronto after getting just one at-bat over Boston’s first three games of the year. Here was his big opoortunity to put all the baggage behind him and begin proving he deserves to be in the lineup more often. Instead, he provided more punch line fodder.

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In Sandoval’s first at-bat of the game, this swing and a miss on a R.A. Dickey knuckleball caused his belt to unbuckle. Sandoval then had trouble putting it back on, leaving him no choice but to finish the at-bat, which ended in a swinging strikeout, without one.

You can’t make this stuff up.

It didn’t get any better for Sandoval in the field, commiting a throwing error in the second inning. After losing the starting third baseman job to Travis Shaw and with his weight already the cause for some concern, his belt coming undone during an at-bat certainly won’t help there.

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